As you say, the way string theory requires all these extra dimensions and this comes from certain consistency requirements about how string should behave and so on.

I was indeed very slow as a youngster.

This book is about physics and its about physics and its relationship with mathematics and how they seem to be intimately related and to what extent can you explore this relationship and trust it.

Ordinary photons do have spin, they have a notion of helicity so they spin around their direction on motion.

Some years ago, I wrote a book called the Emperor's New Mind and that book was describing a point of view I had about consciousness and why it was not something that comes about from complicated calculations.

People think of these eureka moments and my feeling is that they tend to be little things, a little realisation and then a little realisation built on that.

Well I didn't actually see the Matrix but I've seen other movies where with similar sorts of themes.

As for morality, well that's all tied up with the question of consciousness.

If you didn't have any conscious beings in the world, there really wouldn't be morality but with consciousness that you have it.

But I think it is a serious issue to wonder about the other platonic absolutes of say beauty and morality.

My own way of thinking is to ponder long and I hope deeply on problems and for a long time which I keep away for years and years and I never really let them go.

As you say, the way string theory requires all these extra dimensions and this comes from certain consistency requirements about how string should behave and so on.

I'm pretty tenacious when it comes to problems.

So what I'm saying is why don't we think about changing Schrodinger's equation at some level when masses become too big at the level that you might have to worry about Einstein's general relativity.

In the book, I make the point that here we have string theory and here we have twistor theory and we don't know if either one of them is the right approach to nature.

The basic theory in twistor theory is not to add extra dimensions.

Well, I don't know if I can comment on Kant or Hegel because I'm no real philosopher in the sense of knowing what these people have said in any detail so let me not comment on that too much.

And these little things may not seem like much but after a while they take you off on a direction where you may be a long way off from what other people have been thinking about.

The idea is if you use those two shapes and try to colour the plane with them so the colours match, then the only way that you can do this is to produce a pattern which never repeats itself.

Well, gauge theory is very fundamental to our understanding of physical forces these days. But they are also dependent on a mathematical idea, which has been around for longer than gauge theory has.

Some people take the view that the universe is simply there, and it runs along - it's a bit as though it just sort of computes, and we happen by accident to find ourselves in this thing. I don't think that's a very fruitful or helpful way of looking at the universe.

Some people take the view that we happen by accident. I think that there is something much deeper, of which we have very little inkling at the moment.

There is a certain sense in which I would say the universe has a purpose. It's not there by chance.

If the computer-guided robots turn out to be our superiors in every respect, then will they not find that they can run the world better without the need of us at all? Humanity itself will then have become obsolete.

Consistency is found in that work whose whole and detail are suitable to the occasion. It arises from circumstance, custom, and nature.

Not that there weren't great shows, and not that there wasn't plenty of fine music played. It's just that the consistency and the height of where we could take it, with the help of the audience, was less, I felt, in the '90s.

Pressed caviar has the consistency of chilled tar.

I have no consistency, except in politics; and that probably arises from my indifference to the subject altogether.

Our children are counting on us to provide two things: consistency and structure. Children need parents who say what they mean, mean what they say, and do what they say they are going to do.

But I have the satisfaction, at the same time, to reflect that the impression to be made depends upon the consistency of the charge and the motives of the prosecutors.

But change must always be balanced with some degree of consistency.

In any team sport, the best teams have consistency and chemistry.

I have worked hard to improve my consistency in my driving, irons, short game, and putting.

Anger may be kindled in the noblest breasts: but in these slow droppings of an unforgiving temper never takes the shape of consistency of enduring hatred.

Everything you need to get that relaxed driving that brings consistency only comes with practice.

If you look at the themes that he struck from the minute he started running for president through today, there is a very high level of consistency, and there is a sense that he is who he is. Obama's governing is completely consistent with the way he campaigned and the themes on which he campaigned, the issues he highlighted, the vision he shared.

We want a system that will improve consistency and steadiness in the quality of government.

The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.

Because interrogations are intended to coerce confessions, interrogators feel themselves justified in using their coercive means. Consistency regarding the technique is not important; inducing anxiety and fear is the point.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

I believe consistency and orthogonality are tools of design, not the primary goal in design.

I needed some stability, which is why I chose not to change from HRC for this season, which was an option that we had. Apart from being the best team in the world, I also needed some consistency.

As you say, the way string theory requires all these extra dimensions and this comes from certain consistency requirements about how string should behave and so on.

We are not interested in the fact that the brain has the consistency of cold porridge.

Part of courage is simple consistency.

The principle that certain sins should not receive the Church's testimony of forgiveness was probably no novelty at all, but had been applied in various churches; perhaps, however, with no strict consistency.

If I'm interrupted, it's just a minor inconvenience, but not a disaster, because it's easy to get back where I was: that is, the paint has not changed consistency; the light has not moved.

Into this pour the purified juice: and put it into a pan of water come almost to a boil and continue nearly in the state of boiling until the juice is found to be the consistency of a thick syrup when cold. It is then when cold, to be corked up in a bottle for use.

My work is based on the assumption that clarity and consistency in our moral thinking is likely, in the long run, to lead us to hold better views on ethical issues.